4 Things to Do to Become a Better Public Speaker
Most people find public speaking to be a difficult process. Sure, there are some people who have an easy time standing up in front of a room full of people and delivering a 15-minute address without batting an eyelash. Others, however, might have trouble trying to convey ideas to a small meeting of 8 or so. Here are a few basic tips to help make your time speaking just a little bit easier:
Research the Topic When you have the chance to prepare for a speaking engagement, it is always a good idea to get a firm understanding of the topic you are going to be speaking about. By doing a little research, you can make your speech much easier to write. You could use the Internet, interview people or head out to the public library to make a few notes to help you get a good foundation for your subject.
Tell Personal Stories Sometimes you might come across a topic of discussion that you have had some personal experience with. Telling a story about something that has happened to you can make a good basis for a speech. By having this kind of personal relationship with a topic, it can give you more confidence to speak about it. So, if you have an anecdote or personal story that you can relate your speech to, it can help you out by making you more comfortable.
Audience Participation Engaging the people who are listening to you speak is a great method to get people more interested in your topic. Whether you are asking them to repeat after you, or you ask some questions of your audience, both can be a good way to maintain interest through a long talk about a variety of subjects.
Practice At the end of the day, the best tip anyone can give you is to practice. If you know you are going to be giving a speech, it is always best if you take some time to perform the speech alone. You can also do this in front of friends and family as if you were giving the speech to a larger group. By doing this, it can let you get a feel for it and give you a good idea how long it will take. These are just a few tips that should be able to help you up your public speaking game. Remember, confidence is key when it comes to public speaking success, so do what you can to find the confidence you possess.
Jeff Ramson pioneered the intelligent use of social media to advance investor relations goals.